On Lindholm, head coach Bruce Boudreau said he wants the young defenseman “to watch a game,” to see how the speed, intensity and pace picks up in regular season play as opposed to preseason action.

Expected to fill Penner’s absence on the top line is young power forward Patrick Maroon, who is coming off a strong training camp and preseason.

“I just think you have to reward certain people for having good training camps and you have to make a point," Boudreau said. "If you don’t have a great training camp this isn’t just given to you, not everything’s given to you. So that was the case.

“In Dustin’s defense, the last 10 days he’s worked extremely hard. He’s not quite where he wants to be, but he’s getting closer, a lot closer than when he first came into camp.”